DETROIT -- Jake Peavy walked three batters in one inning. A misplay in the field helped open the floodgates for the Detroit Tigers in a five-run second. Miguel Cabrera had a pair of RBI singles, but neither ball was especially well struck. Austin Jackson had an RBI single glance off an infielder's glove.

The offense for the Tigers looked different Thursday night in a 7-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox that evened the American League Championship Series at two games apiece. Game 5 is tonight in Detroit.

The Tigers scored more runs in Game 4 than they had in the previous three combined. Was it because they came up with some clutch hits, took some key walks and benefited from some good bounces? Or was it due to the shakeup in the starting lineup that manager Jim Leyland put in place for the game?

The new leadoff hitter gave credit to the lineup change.

So did the old one.

"It felt good to contribute to a win and just relax, really," said Jackson, who went 2-for-2 with two walks and two RBIs. "Just get a chance to go out there and not put so much pressure on yourself, just have fun and relax and play the game like you know how."

It marked the first multi-hit game of the postseason for Jackson, who was 3-for-33 (.091) with 18 strikeouts in the leadoff spot in the playoffs before being dropped to eighth spot in the lineup.

Jackson did seem more mellow and steady at the plate. Leyland said he moved Jackson down in the lineup in hopes that it would relax him, but the move could have backfired when Jackson stepped in for his first at-bat of the game with a 1-0 lead and the bases loaded in the second inning.

The fact that Peavy couldn't find the strike zone probably helped Jackson settle in. He watched four consecutive balls go by to draw the bases-loaded walk.

"It definitely made me relax a little more," Jackson said of the walk. "It was a big situation right there to try to get something done. I think after I saw a couple of pitches, I was able to kind of just take some deep breaths and relax a little bit, and not worry so much about the result."

That walk gave him just his second RBI of the postseason. It didn't take him long to get his third. Two innings later, Jackson followed a leadoff double by Omar Infante with an RBI single to make it 6-0.

"Jackson did a good job," Leyland said. "All the guys did. I don't know if it had anything to do with it. I doubt it very much."

Alex Avila didn't seem convinced that the lineup change made a big difference. But he was impressed with what Jackson did for the Tigers.

"A lot of people make a big deal about the postseason, but it's a very small sample size," he said. "You make a big deal of it because of how meaningful the games are, but you go through stretches in the regular season when you don't get hits like that and you have a rough 15, 20, 25 at-bats. That's just the way it is. It's part of the game.

"You just trust that the talent and the track record get you out of it."

When Leyland dropped Jackson in the order, he simply moved all of the hitters in the second through eighth spots in the starting lineup up one spot. Torii Hunter started as the leadoff hitter for the first time since the 1999 season. He delivered one of the biggest hits of the game, a two-run double in the second inning that came immediately after the Red Sox botched a chance at turning an inning-ending double play.

Hunter said there is a reason that a lineup shakeup can work and credited Leyland for shaking things up.

"It changes mindsets," Hunter said. "When you move Austin Jackson from leadoff to eighth, you change his mindset. He was comfortable. You put Miggy in the two-hole, it changed his mindset and you saw what he did today. … I thought it was a good idea."

But the Tigers used the same batters in the lineup and just shuffled up the order. Why did it work?

"You'd be amazed," Hunter said. "I wish I could explain to you guys, to you civilians, but I'm telling you, when you get in a different spot, when you go into leadoff, it changes your mindset. When you go into the two-hole, it changes your mindset. In the four-hole, you want to eat. You want to hit home runs and swing hard, strikeouts don't matter, you know, whatever. Three-hole, you should be like (Joe) Mauer or Miguel Cabrera. It changes mindsets, trust me."

Give the Tigers credit for scoring runs. But don't get too overconfident that they have shaken off the offensive doldrums entirely. They scored seven runs in three-plus innings against a struggling Peavy. They have scored six runs in the other 32 innings of the series, including the final five innings of Game 4 against the Boston bullpen.

They were helped along by three Peavy walks, by the error on Dustin Pedroia that gave them an extra out in the second, which they -- again, give them credit -- turned into four additional runs.

Cabrera looked more healthy at times and not any better at others. He looked great while charging a ball and gunning down Pedroia at first in the fifth inning, then looked like he was hurting after a grounder later in the game. His hardest hit ball was a fly out, but he did have two RBI singles. He even stole a base, even though it was more of a stroll to second after he caught the Red Sox pitcher sleeping on the mound for a slow-paced, stand-up steal.

Prince Fielder, the only Tigers starter who didn't reach base in the first two innings, didn't reach base at all. He went 0-for-4 with a strikeout.

Of course, the bright side is pretty bright: The Tigers claimed a win in a must-win game and now head into Game 5 with the starting pitching matchups in their favor, despite the fact that the Red Sox hold home-field advantage in the series. Jackson, Hunter and Cabrera -- all batting in different spots -- made sure of that.

Leyland said that, even though he moved eight players out of the nine into different spots, he tried to be careful with the lineup when he made the changes. In the end, the vast majority of the players in the lineup were batting between the same two players they always do. They just came up to bat earlier in the game.

"I didn't want to have something drastic," Leyland said. "I didn't want something to be comical. I just felt like, I thought the biggest thing was to move Jackson out of the leadoff spot and work around that however I felt would be the best way to do it. This is what I came up with."

And the lineup for Game 5?

"I will go with the same lineup tomorrow, yeah," Leyland said. "I really think you have to."

No matter where he bats, the Tigers would benefit by a more relaxed and more successful Austin Jackson.